I'm coming to visit the campus on the 26th; doing the tour and class visit thing. Any places in particular I should check out in the local area, non law school related? I have a feeling that going to school there means I'll live there after grad and I'm trying to convince myself I can bear the heat for the rest of my life.

Also, overall competitiveness of students and assholeness of profs, on a scale of 1-10?

zx92027xz wrote:I'm coming to visit the campus on the 26th; doing the tour and class visit thing. Any places in particular I should check out in the local area, non law school related? I have a feeling that going to school there means I'll live there after grad and I'm trying to convince myself I can bear the heat for the rest of my life.

Also, overall competitiveness of students and assholeness of profs, on a scale of 1-10?

I'll also echo Mill Ave. or Old Town Scottsdale. Mill Ave. is right by campus and has bars and whatnot. Getting to Oldtown Scottsdale will require a car. Mill Ave. is less expensive than Old Town if that's a factor. You should also consider checking out our downtown. You can get there for a dollar by taking the light rail (subway, basically). For how populated Phoenix is, the downtown is not very active, but on the weekends or when there is a ball game going on, it can get fun. There is also a brand new comedy club downtown right off the light rail called StandUp Live. I've had nothing but great experiences there.

The students here are really relaxed. I don't think it's very competitive at all all actually. I have never heard of all the horror stories that people talk about in other law schools (ie hiding books, ripping out pages, stealing notes, etc.).

As far as the bar scene, I would say that most people go to Mill, Old Town or downtown Phoenix. Mill is full of undergrads, Old Town is a little nicer but more expensive and I can't really say much about downtown because I rarely go there.

A lot of people commute. If it's absolutely unavoidable, then I would say try to take the light rail or some form of transportation where you can study during your commute. I live in Tempe, but a lot of people live in Gilbert, Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, etc.

Privatization isn't a secret. ASU has one of the lowest endowments among law schools b/c alums don't donate. The school has been fundraising like crazy and has raised a couple million this year. The plan is to move to downtown Phoenix because the building is already too small. They also plan to admit more students. I won't be around to see all this happen, but if it's a real concern for you, don't come here. I'm sure tuition will be really expensive, but the truth is that AZ is broke and the law school has to do something to accommodate its size and provide room to grow.

There are lots of other options in the southwest. I'm assuming lobolawyer went to UNM. UofA is also a good choice. I love ASU and think it has a lot of great opportunities that other schools don't.

Aldenita wrote:I have mixed feelings about career services. I ended up finding my summer job through one of their job boards, but I don't think they are all that helpful otherwise. They are kind of a resource that you have to actively pursue to really get anything out of. I have to stay here over the summer in order to get residency and my advisor told me the usual: network, get myself out there, etc. There was a small OCI for 1Ls this semester and a few people got jobs through that (I only got an interview). I think the big takeaway is that the economy is what it is and you really have to market yourself to get a job. I get the feeling that most 1Ls don't have paid summer gigs, but the ones that do interviewed at a lot of places. If you want to practice in AZ, you can't go wrong with ASU; we're ranked higher than U of A and PSOL is about to get unaccredited. Hope that helps.

Thank you for the helpful response! I'm really looking forward to starting at ASU, seems like a great place to attend law school!